


A Tale of Crows and Demons

by chairpods (sarah_taylor713)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Final Haikyuu Quest, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:22:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26209387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarah_taylor713/pseuds/chairpods
Summary: "I'll tell you something: when a crow manages to find its mate, it stays with it for life."In a world whose history is written by constant power plays between princes and kings, two kingdoms continue to clash with no winner ever."There is a lesson you must never forget: a king who decides to fight alone is a defeated king from the start."In a world where you can only lose or win everything, it is useful to remember that even the greatest opponent can become the strongest of allies."In the end, the most powerful king is always the one with the most companions at his side willing to follow him to the end."
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	1. Prologue: Of Destroyed Kingdoms and Fallen Princes

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [A Tale Of Crows And Demons](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/676792) by Ode To Joy. 



> Hi everyone I would like to start off by saying this IS NOT my work. 
> 
> Here is the original by Ode To Joy. https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3070796&i=1
> 
> While I was on Pinterest I saw fantasy AU art by mikkapi. https://mikkapi.tumblr.com/post/155604162609/scenes-and-lighting-studies-from-a-haikyuu-fantasy
> 
> There was a comment under it asking if there was a fic based on their art. The reply said that there was one with the same concept but written in Italian. I decided to take it upon myself to translate it. Please tell me if there or any errors and I'll fix them. 
> 
> As I read more and translate there will be more tags added so don't forget to check!
> 
> If Ode To Joy reads this, I love your work please DM or comment for removal.
> 
> Again ALL CREDITS TO Ode To Joy THIS IS NOT MY WORK.
> 
> Her notes will be at the end, enjoy!

"I'll tell you a story: when a crow manages to find its mate, it stays with it for life."

The crow fell to the ground.

The arrow had come suddenly. Too much for the bird of prey to avoid it, even with the absurd speed that its wings seemed to possess.

The small black body touched the ground almost silently but to the prince, it had seemed deafening like a cannon shot.

***

Seijou's Kingdom had been destroyed.

The first knight struggled up from the bed he had been carried to at the end of the battle. He had remained on the field until the end, he had not given up until his body had given way and would have remained even until his death if they had not dragged him away. He hadn't hoped to reopen his eyes when they threw him between those black blankets desperately calling out whoever could heal his wounds. He did not deserve to live after failing to defend his home and his people.

He felt ashamed for himself, for his weakness. In what he believed was his last minute, he had only wanted to do one thing: ask for forgiveness.

Forgiveness from Tobio for not being able to guide him as he would have liked. Forgiveness from his king for having betrayed the promise he had made to him and the solemn oath they had exchanged. He wouldn't be by his side until the end, he couldn't. He would go first and leave him behind and he felt like an asshole and a traitor for that.

Then two hands clung to his. In the chaos that surrounded him, he was able to feel the tremor that ran through those fingers and he opened his eyes one last time to meet two brown eyes that had accompanied him throughout his life. There had been no forgiveness in those dark irises, polished with despair, just a prayer that Hajime had heard echoing in his head although no one had spoken.

"Alive!" Those eyes said. "Live! It's an order!"

And he couldn't disobey, no matter how angry he felt at himself.

He had woken up in the king's bed, an imprudence that no one seemed to have particularly noticed. No one worried anymore about maintaining useless appearances during the chaos and destruction.

Tobio had been the greatest imprudence and even then the bond that existed between the young sovereign and the first knight was certainly no mystery.

Hajime brought a hand to the bandages around his abdomen fighting a pang of pain as he rose to his feet. They had freed him from his armour and boots, leaving him alone with his pants still stained with mud and blood. He approached one of the large bedroom windows and observed the hideous sight that presented itself. He had watched the sunrise from that same window countless times over the years. He had waited for the sun to rise behind the mountains on the horizon to illuminate their kingdom with the light of a new day, and a thousand others.

So he had hoped. So his king had believed and he must have believed it too when he woke up in that bed with black curtains and got up to wrap his arms around his waist, then leaned his chin on his shoulder and watched in enchantment the same spectacle that had captured his attention.

Hajime found none of those happy days outside that window. He saw only the destruction and desolation left behind by a war that ended in tragedy. The fires had been extinguished but columns of smoke rose beyond the city walls. Hajime could effortlessly guess what they were all about and clenched his fists almost to hurt his palms.

"Hajime?"

The first knight turned. His king was so different in the light of that gray dawn. Where had the black cloak and the bold air gone? Where was the confident smile of someone who has never let himself be bent by defeat? At that precise moment, Tooru looked so much like himself from years before, the young king with golden dreams of glory that he had managed to get to his feet even after the King of the Eagle had taken him prisoner and humiliated him. Or maybe not. That Tooru still wanted to smile, although not always sincerely. The Tooru who was looking at him now seemed to have forgotten how to do it.

He looked tired and shattered, but he walked with his head held high as he crossed the distance that separated them.

How long had it been since the last time they had been this close?

"You shouldn't be standing," he said with a kind sombre.

"You're right," Hajime replied. "I should not."

Tooru pursed his lips. "I don't accept hearing a word of regret from you."

"My life for any one of those boys who burn down there," Hajime said, staring at the columns of smoke that rose towards the sky which were gradually starting to clear. He couldn't avoid Tooru's slap. He didn’t even see it coming.

"Don't you dare," the King warned him sharply. "You don't even have to think about it!" It hurt to see him so genuinely emotional, so desperate. Tooru had always hidden everything behind a sarcastic smile and Hajime had spent practically his entire life learning to see what was hidden behind it. Now, Tooru no longer even had the strength to hide anything.

"Are you okay?" Hajime asked.

"I have no injuries that could jeopardize my health," Tooru replied, then raised a hand to touch the bandages on the abdomen of the first knight."If you weren't so stubborn you would already be dead."

"You're not the best person to blame me for my stubbornness," Hajime reminded him.

"Shut up!" Hissed the King."Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

It wasn't the first time Hajime had witnessed the destruction of Tooru, the Demon King, but in all honesty, every time it was the worst type of torture. The young ruler rested his forehead against his shoulder and shed all the tears he was holding from last night. Hajime let him do it: he couldn't be of any other use in that situation.

"Where is Tobio?" Asked the knight as the sovereign's sobs began to subside. Tooru remained motionless for a few seconds, then gave Hajime a look of pure terror. The latter returned it immediately. "Didn't he go back to the castle?"

The king slowly shook his head as a new wave of panic closed his throat. Forgetting about the pain, the fatigue and the injuries, the knight grabbed his boots that were left abandoned beside the enormous bed. "Let me prepare a horse!"

Tooru shook his head. "You can't ride in your condition, I'll go!"

"You don't know where I left it, you could never-"

The bedroom door opened suddenly and Tooru turned to look at the intruder with eyes harbouring resentment. It was for only a moment.

The blue eyes of the young knight who had just interrupted them were enough to calm the spirits of both of them. "Damn brat!" Hajime exclaimed angrily throwing his boots on the ground and approaching the boy. Tooru wanted to do the same but his pride was strong: instead, he clenched his fists and stayed where he was.

Tobio was holding something in his arms: a red and white bundle. In his cloak, he recognized the Demon King. The boy spoke quickly as if he were on the verge of a panic attack but Tooru did not listen to his words, he was too busy taking in his entirety.

He hadn't gone through huge physical changes in the time they were separated, yet he was different. Perhaps, it was the clothes of a typical knight. Perhaps, it was the bits of desperate humility with which he begged Hajime to help him with whatever troubled him.

The knight took the red bundle from the arms of what had been a prince, their heir to the throne, and stared at his ruler as if he had seen something far more tragic than the destruction that surrounded them. "Tooru ..." He called, then walked over to the bed depositing the dying creature wrapped in red cloth.

Only then did the Demon King understand the terror in the prince's blue eyes. The same terror that must have filled his own when the knights had dragged Hajime, almost dying, inside the castle. He couldn't believe the little crow was still alive, especially not with the arrow going through it from side to side at the junction of the wing and shoulder.

The little guy simply refused to die.

Another living example of pure stubbornness.

"I'll do anything," Tobio spoke. Tooru looked up and realized he was addressing him.

"Anything," he repeated solemnly and put one knee to the ground in submission, "but just heal him, please!"

Tooru was not sure he could endure so much in one day: a crushing defeat by Wakatoshi and the heir who humbled himself without hesitation in front of him. Hajime judged him silently but the Demon King sighed wearily. He had already made up his mind when he saw the state that little crow was in. "We can't do anything if you want it to remain intact, we could take its wing off to free it from the arrow though," he explained. "We just have to wait… Hajime?"

"Yeah?"

"Look for Tetsuro and take Tobio with you, tell him to bring Kenma here: it won't be an easy wound to fix."

He felt Tobio's blue eyes stare at him but Tooru didn't bother looking up.

"Come on, Tobio," he heard Hajime say and, in no time at all, they were already out of the room.

Tooru put one knee on the bed. "You should be proud of yourself, little one. A future king like that who is ready to kneel for you... He's not for everyone."

The bird moved its good wing weakly and Tooru noticed that it was shivering: the room was quite chilly. He turned to the fireplace where the embers were not quite extinguished and bent down to rekindle the fire. He heard a sudden rustle behind him, followed by a clear sobbing of pain.

The Demon King turned: no longer lay a small wounded crow on Tobio's red cloak.

Seeing an arrow stuck in the transformed boy's white chest wasn't something Tooru was prepared for. The boy moved slowly on the bed complaining of pain, his eyes closed and his face was wet with sweat. The king did not suppose he was lucid enough to realize where he was.

He went back to the bed and covered the tiny body with the red cloak he had been previously wrapped in all the way here. Taken by a surge of pity, he ran a hand through the unruly hair of absurd colour.

"You are safe now, Shouyou," he told him gently. The little guy was hot but that was not surprising with such a wound. "You have a fever," he warned him. "Save your strength."

Shouyou opened his eyes with difficulty, staring into those of the king without fear. He squeezed the red fabric of the cloak that covered him as if it were something precious. "Tobio?" It was the only thing he could say. Was he one step away from death and still that was his only concern?

"He's here at the castle too," Tooru assured him. "It's safe."

Shouyou closed his eyes and suddenly relaxed on hearing that answer. "Hey, little guy, stay awake," the Demon King warned him. "Hold on, come on. You've never given up easily and I don't want to be the one to deliver your body back to Koushi and Daichi."

"I protected him ..."

"What?"

Then Shouyou smiled. A weak, tired smile but very similar to a victory smile. Tooru was shocked, as the large, almost golden eyes opened again and looked at him. "He didn't touch him. I managed to save him ..."

He passed out a moment later and Tooru stood there watching over him frozen in place.

For whom was the arrow now piercing Shouyou's chest?

He bowed his head.

"How many other kings do you expect to kneel at your feet, Prince of Ravens?"


	2. Of Demons and Knights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone I hope you guys are having a great day.
> 
> Sorry that this one is out so late. I promise this will be completed, all 40 chapters. School has started and that's my excuse. I hope to get a chapter out every 2 weeks but I wouldn't count on it. 
> 
> Thanks a million times over to my beta reader and edited Sofea, I literally couldn't do this without her.  
> Another thank you to my beta reader dooru. 
> 
> AGAIN THIS IS NOT MY WORK ALL CREDITS TO OdeToJoy.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I did.

Once upon a time, many seasons ago ...

The first time Hajime saw Tooru, he paid little attention to the large brown eyes staring eagerly at him, or the brown hair that curled at the tips in an extraordinarily perfect way.  
All he could pay attention to were the two dark horns sticking out of his head.

Hajime had had the misfortune of being born a human in a kingdom of demons, but he had never seen any of them up close, nor had he ever wanted to: he was less than nothing to them; a slave, nothing more. Although he was living in poverty, fate had been miserably magnanimous with him, and he was born in the countryside, in a village outside the capital.

His parents had died the previous winter in a cough epidemic from which Hajime had saved himself, more from stubbornness than anything else. No one had welcomed him into their home purely because of his kind, so he had offered to work for anyone who needed it, contenting himself with sleeping in the barn at the end of the day.

It was the last family he'd worked for that sold him to the royal guards as if he were an animal, property. They hadn't hurt him. On the contrary, they had taken care of him all the way to the Black Castle, where they had cleaned him up, and dressed him in attire that he could never have afforded in a lifetime's worth of work. Thus, he ended up in the presence of the Queen of Seijou, and her son, who had lost his father during the last war against the Kingdom of Karasuno, from which, once again, no one had emerged victorious.

"Hajime?" The queen was beautiful, she had a gentle smile, and two beautiful blue eyes. Hajime thought it reminded him of his mom. "Come closer."  
He did so, and the woman gently pushed the child next to her to step forward.

They were in a bedroom, and the queen sat in a large armchair with a shawl over her shoulders, even though it was summer. She was pale, and Hajime saw on her face the sweetness and sadness he had seen in his own mother when she got sick, and realized she would never get better.

"Hello!" exclaimed the prince enthusiastically. Hajime just stared at his horns, and remained silent. "He's shy, mom!" the child exclaimed, turning to the queen. 

She smiled tenderly. "Maybe, because you haven't told him your name yet."

The prince nodded with conviction, and took a step forward. "My name is Tooru!" he exclaimed, and Hajime took a step back, overwhelmed by that incomprehensible enthusiasm. "And you are Hajime Iwai... Iwai..." It must have been the guards who had informed them of his name, but the prince seemed to have some difficulty in pronouncing it. Hajime watched as the boy struggled to no avail. "Iwa-chan!" he exclaimed, then nodded with satisfaction. "I'll call you Iwa-chan!"

"Huh?" Hajime looked at him irritably beyond words, and seriously thought about punching him to wipe that happy expression off of his face. The queen laughed, however, and it was such a faint and loving sound that Hajime held back. Tooru took the opportunity to take Hajime's hands without the slightest respect for his personal space. 

"From today, Iwa-chan, you are all mine!"

"With respect, Tooru," his mother chided him good-naturedly, then turned to Hajime. "Please be patient, and take care of him."

Hajime was still too young to understand the real meaning of those words.

***

Hajime never knew why, of all the orphaned children in the kingdom, it was him.  
For a while, he wondered, but as his second summer at the Black Castle began, he decided not to ask himself any more unnecessary questions. Perhaps he should just be thankful for the opportunity he had been given to leave hard work and poverty behind him. Then there was Tooru... and Tooru, at times, was able to make him regret even his darkest days.

He was a beautiful child, the little demon. A child, all full of coaxing and smiles. He was terribly good at making anyone fall in love with him, and was completely aware of the fact. Hajime, however, did nothing but disgrace in the most humiliating way possible. He was born strong, sure, but he had nothing charming with which to win the hearts of others. Tooru, on the other hand, didn't seem to see anyone but him... to his misfortune.

The prince lived in the belief that Hajime existed for the sole purpose of fulfilling his every wish, and making him the happiest child in the world. Consequently, there was no way for Hajime to tear him off, even with all the strength in the world.

"Iwa-chan, I'm bored!" Tooru complained, followed by more whining. "Iwa-chan is so mean to me!" They were the same sentences that were repeated several times a day by Tooru, and it always ended with Hajime's cursing, and Tooru's satisfied smirk. Soon, Hajime realized how the boy was virtually incapable of making friends, and how desperately the queen must have tried to solve the problem by buying him one.

There was one good thing about all of this: no one had ever stopped Hajime from being honest with Tooru. Although in the early days it was difficult to understand how to behave in the presence of the prince, he had learned to accept Tooru’s enthusiastic personality. As time passed, Hajime forgot about Tooru’s childish behaviour, and the latter never bothered to remind him. Through running down the corridors of the castle, getting muddy in the huge garden, and creating chaos and confusion for the entire court of Seijou, a special bond was created between Tooru and Hajime. A sort of friendship tinged with addiction, in which at times, it was difficult to guess which of the two possessed the dominant personality.

It soon became clear that, despite his stubbornness, there really was nothing Hajime could deny Tooru of, and for his part, the prince could not do without the orphan in his moments of great weakness.

When he was seven, doctors forbade Tooru from sleeping with his mom, claiming that the queen needed as much rest as possible. The prince remedied the damage by slipping into Hajime's bed every night for the following months.

"Iwa-chan?"

Hajime grunted, pulling the covers up over his head. Tooru had the unbearable habit of engaging in complicated conversations only when the other didn't want to do anything but go to sleep.

"What's the outside world like?" It was a question Tooru often asked him, for the prince had never seen the world outside the castle. Within a few years, he would become king of a kingdom he had never seen.

"Someday I'll take you there," Hajime replied half asleep. "So you will see it for yourself."  
Tooru sat up on the mattress. Hajime looked at him through narrowed eyes, and didn't miss the way Tooru's bright eyes seemed to illuminate the darkness around them.

"Do you promise me?"

Hajime snorted. "Sure, stupid. Now, sleep!"

***

Tooru had been educated in the art of war from the age of five.

At the age of eight, he was already the best archer of his generation, and made it no secret of his pride in the sport. Hajime had rarely attended his training, for the prince did not want him to get confused with the other children of the nobility, who were trained in the art of the sword in the main courtyard of the castle.

There, Hajime had met the other little court demons, with whom he was otherwise unable to have contact with. His role required him to be next to Tooru, and the rules stated that the prince was to grow apart from the others, and be isolated from all of his peers.

Hajime himself did not understand the point of being trained, as he was certainly not to be put on par with an entire generation of demons.

"You are always to be by the prince's side," Issei Matsukawa, the son of a noble family residing at court, explained to him. "One day, you are expected to be able to protect him."

Wonderful! Was this what the world expected of him? Was he nursing the prince of idiots to his last breath?

"I don't think it's possible," Takahiro Hanamaki interjected.

For some strange reason, Hajime felt irritated by that comment. "Why not?"

The other shrugged. "As a rule, the bodyguard of the prince and the king has always been the head knight, and you are a human in a court of demons. You should be better than all of us to stand by the prince."

For the first time in two years, Hajime remembered that he was different from all of them, that he was what the demons considered less than nothing. A slave, at most. He had no rights, just a long list of duties that would accompany him until his death. Tooru was all that distinguished him from the others, and he had gotten to where he was without having any merit.

Hajime gripped the wooden sword tightly, trying to ward off the wave of insecurity from which he let himself be overwhelmed by.

He never talked about it with Tooru.

***

Twelve years went by and Hajime was still at the Prince's side.

He had spit blood, and came on the verge of throwing in the towel more than once along the way, but for his age, he had come to be among the favourites to receive the title of the first knight. And Tooru was just as proud of this as he was of his skills as an archer.

"Look how good you’ve become, Iwa-chan! But obviously not as good as me, after all!"

Hajime dealt him a blow to the base of the neck, ending up with another of his interminable complaints. "One of these days," the prince proposed after a while, with a look Hajime had never seen him give him before, "come to the gardens during my training and fight me."

When he told it to Issei and Takahiro, they looked at him as if he had completely lost his mind. "It's forbidden!" exclaimed the first.

"You'll get yourself killed," said the second.

And Hajime wondered what was so illegal and macabre about Tooru's proposal.

He never found out, there was no time: the queen got worse and the prince did not follow his training regularly for quite some time.

It was then that Tooru began to do something Hajime would never stop hating him for.

"It'll get better," he said one night as they both sat in front of the fire. Hajime looked at the prince's profile but he ignored his gaze with determination.

"She'll be fine," he said again, his brown eyes fixed on the flames.

He smiled. Tooru's first fake smile.

Hajime never forgot it, and hoped with all his soul that he would never have to see it again.

It was only the first of many.

***

For a whole year, Tooru smiled at him like that, and for a whole year, Hajime pretended not to notice the cracks that were becoming deeper and deeper in the prince's facade. He shouldn’t have pretended. He should have kept the pieces together before having to pick them up one by one from the stone floor that they no longer wanted to run on.

However, they were both still children, and were not yet able to take care of each other as they should.

Hajime continued on his way as a knight, telling himself that he was doing it for himself, for the comfortable life he had, and not to stay by the prince's side.

Tooru began to take on his responsibilities as a crown prince, realizing how the power that should have been his mother’s had actually been used as a weapon by nobles and advisers for the most selfish and personal reasons. More than once he had wanted to run to Hajime, cry on his shoulder and at the very least confide in him all the fears and insecurities that he could not have shown anyone else.

If he proved weak, that power would be destroyed.

He had to be strong and if he wasn't strong enough, he would become strong.

It was summer again, and they both turned thirteen.

The sun had gone down for some time, but Hajime had stayed in the weapons room to wrap his palms: the skin had broken from exercising too much, and he didn't want Tooru to notice, although trying to tighten the bandages essentially in the dark was not a particularly clever move.

He cursed himself once again as the door behind him opened with a creak, making his blood run cold. Hajime turned, ready to yell at anyone who came to interrupt him. Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

"Tooru?"

The prince kept his gaze down, his eyes hidden behind the fringe of brown hair. He was silent, still, and Hajime felt anxiety collect in his chest. "Tooru, what are you doing here?" he asked, rising from the bench he was sitting on.

"You never came," Tooru pointed out with a note of resentment in his voice.

"I was staying to train until after dark," Hajime justified. If it was any other occasion, Hajimi would let Tooru know that he was not his property, and that he would not die from waiting once in his life. Tooru, however, was not himself, and Hajime could see through him effortlessly. 

"Tooru." He came even closer. "Did something happen?"

"Take me away..."

"What?"

Tooru literally threw himself on the knight, and Hajime was startled as the prince clawed the fabric of his robe. He was trembling like a leaf, and for a moment, Hajime feared he might collapse to the ground.

"Take me away," he sobbed against his shoulder. "Please, take me away!"

If it had been yet another exaggerated emotional reaction, Hajime would have kicked the prince back to himself, but there was something dire about Tooru at that moment. For the first time, the Demon Prince shattered into a thousand pieces in his arms, and Hajime could not help but abide by his request.

"Okay." He nodded hastily. "Okay, let's go!"

Hajime put his cloak on Tooru, even though it was only that of an untitled court boy. It held no power, but Tooru pulled it around him without paying any attention. Hajime led him to the stables, and saddled a horse quickly, heedless of the darkness and madness of the gesture. If they went away like this, without saying a word, and without the permission of the councillors, the kind gesture would be seen as nothing other than a kidnapping. Hajime, however, did not want to give weight to that possibility: Tooru was in desperate need to leave, to get out of the black castle once and for all, and Hajime would not betray his trust for fear of being seen as a criminal.

He would have plenty of time to worry once he was chained to one of the dungeon walls.

He got on the horse, and made Tooru sit behind him. He set off at a gallop before he had time to think of a direction to take.

The Prince clung to his shoulders, weeping against his back the whole time.

Hajime rode until he no longer had the strength to, and then took a familiar path, although it had been years since he had last travelled it.

He stopped the horse near a waterfall, and felt Tooru move behind him. Perhaps, he had raised his face to see the spectacle that was presented before them. He asked no questions, and when Hajime stepped ashore, he followed without hesitation.

The boy tied the steed to a tree while the prince absentmindedly approached the shore of the lake which, over time, had formed at the foot of the waterfall, before the water returned to flow along the narrow banks of the river bed. Tooru knelt on the grass, dipping a hand into the crystal clear water.

"It's beautiful," he commented.

Hajime didn't answer, just moved closer to sit next to him. The sky was clear, and the moonlight was enough to allow the boy to look his prince in the face. Tooru had changed a lot over the last winter: the soft and childish features had gradually shifted into the refined features he was wearing now. He looks like his mother, Hajime thought.

Even though they didn't have the same blue eyes, they certainly shared the same beauty.  
He blushed at such a thought, although he didn't understand why.

It was only natural for children to resemble their parents: Hajime had the green eyes of his mother's, although he had inherited neither the sweet face nor the petite frame from her. He was his father's son in many ways, but he was unable to compare Tooru to his own: he had never seen the king.

"My mother is dead," the prince murmured in a barely audible tone, but Hajime looked at him as if he had just screamed at the top of his lungs. For a long moment, he didn't know what to say. He should have understood it right away. He should have guessed it from the desperation that Tooru had expressed in every gesture.

"I beg you, take me away!" Hakime shook his head: he didn't want to think about it.

"Iwa-chan..."

"Yeah?"

Tooru let out a sob. "The world outside the castle is really beautiful, you know?" He looked down, and burst into tears again. Hajime felt useless, like an idiot for not having the slightest idea of what to do or how to help him. He tried to remember what it had been like when his parents died. He had just turned six, and hadn't had enough time to feel sad; he hadn't been given it. For the first few months, he had spent hours of work in the fields crying alone, and it went on like this until the tears were over. That was when he realized that the pain of loss would just have to get used to, because it would not go away.

But Tooru seemed infinitely more defenceless than he had ever been between hunger and poverty. He put an arm around his shoulders, and the prince leaned against him as if he wanted to do nothing but yield in safe hands. "You won't leave me too, will you Iwa-chan?"

Hajime could not stand it. Tooru was a living scourge, sure of himself to the point of being unbearable. Fragility was not for him, and Hajime felt something breaking in his heart to see him reduced to that state.

"I am your property, remember?" he said to him, thinking carefully about every word. "You bought me, I belong to you." He hated that it was like that, but as disgusting as it was, it was the truth. Hajime was little more than an object, so the other boys had been scandalized by the idea that the prince wanted to fight him as an equal. It wasn't, it never would be.

Even if he did manage to become the first knight, his place would always be two steps behind Tooru, never at his side. And that would only stay that way until the prince was fed up with it.

Tooru, however, shook his head, and raised his large dark eyes to meet Hajime's. "No, I don't want this."

The boy did not understand. The young demon clung to his tunic in desperation, and came closer. Hajime should have stopped him, should have prevented him from doing such an absurdity surely dictated by the desperation of the moment, but Tooru's eyes were large and bright as he looked at him, and his trembling lips begged him to do just one thing.  
"Please," it was the second time in a single night that he pleaded to him like this. Hajime was just a little boy who would give everything to be something in the eyes of the young demon in his arms.

Their first kiss tasted like Tooru's tears, and as he wiped them away with timid caresses on his cheeks, Hajime vowed to himself that as long as he was standing, he would hold the prince whenever he was about to fall.

They never talked about it again.

They returned to the Black Castle at the first light of dawn. Nobody noticed anything.  
Hajime helped Tooru dismount the horse, although there was no need, and escorted him to his room. Somewhere along the empty corridors, the prince took the hand of his childhood friend, their fingers intertwined. Hajime looked down at them, but said nothing about it.

When he then left Tooru in front of his bedroom door, he told the prince to try and sleep at least a little. He walked away, oblivious to the hand still clasped in the prince's. Tooru pulled him back a little towards himself, and for a moment, Hajime feared what he might say or do.

"Good night, Iwa-chan."

Three days later, Tooru buried his mother, and began his education as the future king. Hajime was admitted to the Order of the Knights of the king as an apprentice, along with all the other young, noble sons of demons.

Of that kiss stolen under the moon of a midsummer night, they never spoke again.

***

Fourteen years old, and their world had changed completely, starting the night the queen passed away. The days they shared between games and quarrels - the moments which both were convinced would never end - they became just a memory in a few months.

There was no more time to play, there was no longer a way to be together.

Hajime had dedicated his body and soul to training with the other knights, to the point that he often collapsed in his room before he had time to change, and have a silent dinner with his prince.

Tooru, for his part, had not left his mother’s memory behind, and at the same time, the councillors were squabbling over his approval, trying to patronize him enough to use it to their advantage.

Hajime was aware of the danger Tooru was in, in that power struggle, which would only subside once he became a full-fledged king. It would only end when he proved strong, and capable enough to sit on the throne. The young knight, however, was no longer close enough to be of any support. Sure, he didn't have the power in the first place, but beyond that, Tooru had suddenly become unattainable for him over the past year.

The time they spent together was reduced to a minimum, and their conversations became shorter and shorter. More than once, however, Hajime had seen Tooru looking out from one of the balconies overlooking the main courtyard of the castle during the training of the knights. Hajime had been sure he had seen Tooru smile at his sight, before inevitably returning inside, to the bickering of the councillors.  
They hadn't forgotten about each other. Simply, the world had gotten in between them, as it does to all children who are growing up.

"Iwa-chan?" Tooru had been waiting for Hajime on the porch of the courtyard that late summer day, wanting to talk to him in front of everyone else. Hajime felt everyone's stares, including Issei's and Takahiro's, against his back as the prince talked to him, as if he weren't dripping in sweat, and smelling like a farm animal.

"Tomorrow, you have orders to escort me out of the palace," Tooru had told him with a smile that he had only recently learned to do: something between the diabolical and the seductive, he would have dared to say. "I want you to show me the outside world again, as you promised."

And so they headed, once again, to the waterfall Hajime had shown the young demon a year earlier.

The sun was hot that afternoon, and the water was cool, so Hajime didn't think twice about taking off his tunic and boots to dip his feet into the shallower water near the muddy bank. Tooru looked at him for a long minute, tying his horse close to the knight’s own, before leaving with a completely unexpected comment: "You have changed..."

Hajime didn't know how to reply, so he decided not to and let any of the prince's tricks die in the bud before it blew his nerves, but Tooru didn't tend to give up easily by nature. It was enough for Hajime to look away for a few seconds to find himself sliding abruptly on the stones of the seabed, and falling into the water with his pants on.

When he emerged, he was already in a fighting stance, and the Prince was still laughing. "A knight never lets his guard down," he scolded him with that unbearable grin. "Didn't they teach you, Iwa-chan?"

He had taken off his cloak and boots, his feet dipped in the shallower water to push Tooru with all his weight. He wasn't smart enough to retreat, though.  
Hajime grabbed his ankle before he had time to notice his mistake, and the prince fell into the water with all his clothes still on, letting out a shrill cry.

"Iwa-chan!" he exclaimed indignantly, rising to his feet. "Always so touchy!"

"Accept the consequences of your actions, and stop complaining!" exclaimed the knight, shedding his wet trousers and throwing them on the dry grass. He didn't notice Tooru's gaze as he walked cautiously towards the waterfall. "I'll take a bath, you do what you want!"

The knight stopped once the water level was high enough to reach his waist. He ran his wet fingers through his hair, pulling it back. Hajime became suspicious when he realized that the only noise around him was that of the waterfall in front of him. "Tooru?" He turned to a sight that took his breath away.

He did not know what or, perhaps, he preferred not to understand it.

He had seen the prince naked countless times, he had compared the way their bodies grew with the passing of the seasons in completely different ways. Tooru, perhaps, was surpassing him in height, but his shoulders were not as broad as his own, and his limbs were harmonious where those of the knight were raw, used to physical effort. A prince raised to be a king, and a country boy trained to be a knight.

Two completely different worlds should never have touched, the rules of the reality in which they lived were clear, but fate had not wanted them to know. Tooru dived slowly, giving Hajime a complete picture of what he had lost during the last winter spent farther away from his prince than by his side.

As he reached him, the young demon smiled. "You blushed, Iwa-chan!"

The knight looked at him irritably. "Don't bullshit!"

"So rude..."

"You don't deserve anything else."

Tooru put on a forced pout that would not fool anyone, and delicately, but casually, reached out with his right hand, and began to trace a series of imaginary lines on the other teenager's chest with his index finger. "Do you remember, Iwa-chan? Years ago, you were the ugliest kid in the whole court."

Hajime looked at him menacingly. "Hey..."

"Now, even the older servant girls murmur about you."

Something had darkened in Tooru's gaze, and the gentle line of his mouth was suddenly stern, annoyed. "Those whores peep out of the windows, overlooking the main courtyard when they think no one is looking at them, and make vulgar comments about all the knights. Many would be happy to teach you things that no training or teacher would be able to prepare you for."

Hajime found himself not replying once again. Some of the other boys had already stretched their hands on some of the maidens of the servants, but that was not his case: the time that he was not at Tooru's side, he had always spent training, trying to be stronger.

"I don't care."

Tooru's brown eyes darted across his face, but they weren't the naive or sly ones of the child he grew up with: they were a shade darker, a dangerous shade.

"I don't care what they say," Hajime said with extreme seriousness, as if he had to convince his Prince of his innocence.

Still, he had committed no crime.

Yet, if he had lain with a girl of humble origins who wanted him, there would have been nothing strange and evil.

They both knew this well, but Tooru's eyes lit up again at hearing those words. A new smile blossomed on those enchanting lips, as if the dark veil that had fallen for a moment on his face had never existed.

"The councillors want me to find a consort," announced the prince as he removed his hand from the other boy's chest. "There will be parties at the castle. Princes and princesses will come from every kingdom as possible suitors so that they can marry me as soon as I officially inherit the throne."

Hajime was speechless for a few seconds, then made a face. "This is ridiculous!"

"Why do you think that?"

"For a long list of good reasons!"

"For example?"

Hajime gasped for a few seconds. "Well..." He shrugged. "I think we're too young to understand things like love, and..."

Tooru burst out laughing, and the knight thought it was a chilling sound. "How romantic you are, Iwa-chan!" he exclaimed. "Love..." He laughed again. "What can a king do with love?"

Hajime was too young to answer him.

***

The royal advisors were quick to develop their plots.

Just ten days later, the first ball was held in honour of the Demon Prince.  
It was an event for all the young knights, because so many beautiful girls were never seen at the Black Castle like that night. That time, only the names of princesses were announced, those of which Hajime had never heard of.

"They are heirs of minor kingdoms," Issei commented as Takahiro eyed the banquet table, undecided whether to grab something or not. "I don't think they expect the prince to take one of them as his wife."

Hajime understood less and less of that story. "So why waste time?"

"Tactics," replied his friend. "Parties like these also serve to show Seijou's pomp and power."

"Meanwhile, the councillors raise taxes, and the people are starving."

"It's not the peasants who win wars, Hajime."

The young knight made a face, dropping the subject. There was no reason to argue with those who really knew nothing about hunger and misery. He leaned his back against the wall, and folded his arms against his chest. His other training companions had already excused themselves to oversee horrible dances just to watch some lady-in-waiting humble enough for their level. He just hoped that everything would end quickly, and in the most painless way possible.

He looked for Tooru, and found him where he had left him; in the middle of the dance floor with yet another girl with a swooning expression.

Hajime had stopped counting them when he got to five, and while Takahiro ate heedless of everything and everyone, he wondered how many more would follow. Eventually, he turned all his contempt for that matter on the table to eat.

Tooru didn't wait for the party to end.

Hajime saw him go away with a little girl in a blue dress and blonde hair beside him. He stared at the spot where he had disappeared for an unbearably long period of time then, tired of all the cheerful chatter, he retired.

He did not go to his room, though. It was too close to the prince's.

The next day, Hajime woke up early enough to have breakfast with the heir to the throne, and as he had imagined, Tooru was in a great mood.

The knight ended up getting up from the table without having eaten anything. The prince threw himself into yet another unbearable fit at the address of the lady of the so-and-so kingdom whose name he was not sure he had understood.

Not two weeks passed before the Black Castle was again festively decorated to accommodate two kingdoms of considerable political importance: that of Nekoma, and that of Shiratorizawa. However, on the evening of the event, the latter did not show up as agreed, and Hajime took diabolical pleasure in seeing the old councillors lose their minds over it, while nothing seemed to obscure Tooru's light.

As was customary, Hajime watched him from afar, aloof.

It didn't matter if they had grown up together, or how close they were privately: Hajime was still nothing more than a country boy bought to entertain a capricious prince, and Tooru was the heir to the throne of a kingdom.

However, that evening, he was not alone.

"Can I?"

Normally, no one questioned him, and they hardly noticed him, so it took him a while to understand that the boy with the blond hair and the long light tunic was addressing him. Hajime realized he was asking permission to sit in an empty chair next to him.  
The knight nodded.

"Thank you." The boy sat down, and as if not at all aware of where he was, opened the book he was holding, and began reading in a relaxed manner.

Hajime stared at him, then looked around to see if anyone else was as speechless as he was. No, obviously not.

He returned to observe the boy from the corner of his eye, undecided whether to ask him something or not. He was the strange-strong type, there was no doubt it.

"Do you wonder why I'm standing here reading?" asked the stranger.

Hajime stiffened. He was too embarrassed to confirm, so remained silent.

"Because I'm like you, I like to stay on the sidelines."

The knight could not deny it. "Are you from the Nekoma kingdom?" he asked.

"I'm with that tall, menacing-looking guy who’s talking to the Demon Prince," the boy replied without looking up from his book. Hajime lifted his head to look for the guy in question, and indeed found him having a conversation with Tooru on the other side of the room. He was tall, and couldn't be described to have a reassuring expression. He was particularly eye-catching for the contrast his raven hair created with the long red cloak, and Hajime's eyes widened as he sensed his identity.

"But that's..."

"Prince Tetsuro of Nekoma, yes," confirmed the boy next to him in an apathetic voice.  
Hajime found himself staring at him in confusion: his appearance was, although respectable, rather modest. Perhaps too much to be at such a reception, let alone to be at the side of a prince.  
Then, something broke his thoughts, as if a stone had fallen onto his head. He wasn't all that different from him, after all.

"What are you?" Hajime asked, more to silence his thoughts than out of genuine curiosity. 

The kid shrugged. "It seems I was born with enough odd abilities to be called a magician."

"A mage?!"

"My father was the personal physician of the royal family. I try to take his place as far as I can."

"You must have known prince Tetsuro for a long time."

"We grew up together."

At that answer, Hajime felt something hurt in his chest. The little boy was exactly like him, he thought, yet he didn't show half of his difficulty in staying on the sidelines. 

He looked at Tooru. Whatever the Prince of Nekoma was saying to him, the demon was amused by.

How he wished that the evening would end soon.

"What's your name, magician?"

"Feel free to call me Kenma, knight."

***

"Prince Tetsuro isn't that bad," Tooru commented as he shed his shiny boots and party cloak. They had retreated to the upper floors together, and Hajime felt strangely reassured by this, by the intimacy immediately created between them as soon as that door was closed behind them.

"He can never be a spouse worthy of me, but of course, he could be a good ally." 

Hajime looked away from the crackling fire in the fireplace. "For what reason?"

Tooru shrugged. "Nekoma is a kingdom of incredible stability: it is self-sufficient, it does not lose economic and human resources in organizing wars, and unlike ours, it has no particular racial laws."

"No, I was referring to the fact that he would not be a worthy spouse of yours." 

Tooru looked at him with a tinge of amazement colouring his face, then smiled, coming closer. "Loves another," he replied, sitting down on the carpet next to his childhood friend.

"Did he tell you?" Hajime asked, confused. What prince in his right mind would show up at a double-ended ball with such a confession?

"There was no need," Tooru explained. "He has a childhood friend he just couldn't stop talking about, and it didn't matter what the conversation was about. It was interesting ... Almost reassuring."

"Why?"

"Because I, too, can't help but talk about Iwa-chan with strangers," confessed Tooru lightly, as if those words weren't like a stab in the chest for Hajime. "The girls ask me to talk about myself, and I do nothing but tell them about you and us."

Hajime was no longer breathing, and Tooru kept on smiling as if everything was just normal. Was it... was it possible that he was so stupid that he didn't realize it? He couldn’t just disappear with other girls, and then laugh as if he had never done it before. Had he really needed all those girls just to confess that? 

There were only two possible reasons: either he was unbearably stupid, or he was exceedingly cruel!

Hajime pursed his lips until they became a thin line, and clenched his fists, imposing a control that exceeded all his ability to bear.

He jumped when the door opened, and one of the maidens of the servants entered with an awkward and alarmed air. "Forgive me, your highness, the gentlemen of the council are sending me."

***

Hajime would never forget that night.

The night he saw the Eagle King for the first time.

They found him wandering around the throne in complete solitude. He had gotten rid of the old men of the council without waiting for the arrival of the Demon Prince.

He did not show up at the reception he was invited to, but he did now, in the middle of the night, and in complete solitude. Hajime never believed he had ever seen a prince come to a foreign kingdom without an escort, and with his own horse. That alone should have told him a lot about the kingdom he ruled over at just eighteen years of age. That alone should have warned him enough to take Tooru, and take him as far away from him as possible.  
But Hajime was nobody. He was just a kid bought on a whim who deluded himself to be a knight, with the aim of becoming the strongest.

King Wakatoshi took off his white hood, revealing a face with strong, decidedly virile features. There were a few seasons to divide the day of their birth, but one could tell that he was already a man, while Tooru was just a boy.

"The King of the Eagle?" Tooru asked with a look that Hajime could only define as persuasive. An all-too-grown-up smile had appeared on his lips: that of a prince enjoying the attention of the king who sat on the throne of a kingdom never defeated, even by Seijou itself.

"The Demon Prince?" Wakatoshi moved away from the Black Throne to get closer to its rightful owner. Hajime was completely ignored.

"You are late, my lord," Tooru pointed out with the arrogance of someone who can afford to put a king of that calibre in the face of their mistakes.

The Eagle King's expression was stern. It was certainly threatening, but Hajime knew Tooru well enough to know that he wouldn't be intimidated by this. "I beg your pardon," said the young king with cold politeness.

Hajime didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.

Tooru, on the other hand, seemed to derive some form of satisfaction from that situation. "Then pay me homage properly to a future king in his own home."

The knight stared at the prince as if he were all mad: it was the strongest king of all kingdoms he was addressing! He had enough power and wealth to lay siege to them on a whim and lose nothing in the process!

Wakatoshi, however, showed far more respect than Tooru had shown him with his arrogance. He put down one knee to the ground and bowed his head in respect. 

Hajime looked at Tooru, and the expression he saw on his face tore him apart.  
The Demon Prince was ecstatic as he watched the strongest of kings kneel at his feet.

"I hope we will be on good terms, my king." Tooru held out his right hand.

The King of the Eagle looked up as sharp as a barely sharpened sword. He took his hand in his own. "I hope so too, my prince."

Hajime never forgot that night, the one that marked the beginning of the rise and fall of Prince Tooru of Seijou.

He never forgave himself for letting it happen before his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there were any mistakes please feel free to comment or shoot me a DM on instagram.
> 
> If any of you guys can write (unlike me) please DM me I am always looking for more beta readers to ease the process along.
> 
> Instagram: @sssarahahah
> 
> Have a great day everyone, thanks for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello people!  
> Another fandom, another experiment and this requires the introduction notes instead of at the bottom of the page to make reading easier.  
> I think that almost everyone knows Haikyuu Finale Quest even if only by oversight (for everyone else googling and have fun!). Well! It was probably the final click that prompted me to write this story (along with a long list of themed fan art that blew my mind) but it has very little to do with that video game. More specifically, it takes up its medieval dimension and little else from here the Alternative Universe warning with Fantasy elements and a lot of poetic license regarding the genre (I think we have all seen at least one image of Oikawa dressed in black and complete with horns ... Well, this alone I think is enough to justify).  
> Small introduction: each team from the original story here corresponds more or less to a kingdom. Kingdoms make wars, forge alliances and so on. And here comes the speech of couples.  
> As you may have read, this story was born as a Kageyama x Hinata (which in this specific contrast will be exclusively called Tobio and Shouyou). However, the plot has a rather choral scheme and with the important presence of Iwaizumi x Oikawa and Daichi x Suga (especially in the first chapters) and this does not exclude the involvement of other couples that we could define classic for this fandom.  
> Other peculiarities: the plot has elements typical of the Alpha-Omega relationships and consequent hint of mpreg in the very first chapters, however the story does not revolve around either of the two themes.  
> I hope you enjoy reading!


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